November 2017 - Page 3 of 4 - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

Enchanted April lives up to its title in Linden House production

By Jamie Portman | November 9, 2017

There are understandable reasons that Elizabeth von Arnim’s 1922 novel, Enchanted April, is enjoying a renewed lease on life.

Perhaps the most obvious in this day and age is the fact that one can detect early tinges of feminism in this story of four British women of various ages and backgrounds who boldly assert their independence and team up for an idyllic holiday in an old castle in sunbaked Italy.

But other durable factors are also at play here. It is an engaging tale. It is peopled by four interesting and believable female characters. Finally, in its successful transfers to film and stage: the material has offered a bouquet of splendid acting opportunities. …

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Shatter: This view of Halifax explosion is a dramatic disaster.

By Iris Winston | November 8, 2017

Shatter By Trina Davies, diected by Barbara Kobolak. a Kanata Theatre production.

The Halifax Explosion on December 6, 1917, was among the greatest maritime disasters in Canadian history.

The facts were that a French vessel, the SS Mont-Blanc, was carrying a cargo of explosives (improperly protected) when it collided with a Norwegian vessel, the SS Imo in the strait on the way to Halifax Harbour. The Mont-Blanc cargo caught fire and the resulting explosion wreaked havoc around it, killing some 2,000 people and destroying whole communities. …

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The Elephant Girls – Celebrating 100 Performances

By Capital Critics Circle | November 7, 2017

The Elephant Girls turns 100!

Come see The Elephant Girls and help us celebrate 100 performances of this multi-award winning show. One Night Only!

The Elephant Girls premiered at the Ottawa Fringe Festival in 2015 where it broke box office records, won rave reviews, and all the top awards. The show has been touring in Canada and overseas ever since. Now as Margo MacDonald reaches an amazing one hundred performances, we look forward to presenting The Elephant Girls in its hometown to celebrate. Come see the show, then stay for drinks and a Q&A session with creator/performer Margo MacDonald and director Mary Ellis.

“Without doubt, they were the most notorious girl gang Britain’s ever seen.”
(Brian McDonald, Gangs of London) …

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GCTC’s Ordinary Days proves to be an extraordinary stage experience

By Patrick Langston | November 7, 2017

Posted on Artsfile.ca on November 3

The key to life in the big city? Ignore the big and celebrate the everyday.

It sounds trite, but Ordinary Days – Adam Gwon’s thoughtfully empathetic chamber musical about four young people adrift in New York City – is just the opposite of pedestrian, as the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s winning production of his show proves.

Directed by Eric Coates, the sung-through piece tracks the lives of two women and two men as they grapple with loneliness in the city and struggle for everything from artistic recognition to freedom from a past that warps the present. …

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Student Review: You Are Happy? at the Great Canadian Theatre Company

By Capital Critics Circle | November 7, 2017

Are You Happy — You Are Happy
Photo : Andrew Alexander

Reviewed by Kellie MacDonald in the theatre criticism class of Patrick Langston

Rope, razor blades, a bottle of pills — they’re not your typical punchlines, but this isn’t your typical comedy, either. Originally written in French by Rébecca Déraspe and translated in English by Leanna Brodie, You Are Happy leaves you with a sinking feeling in your gut that, as perfect as things seem, we, individually and collectively, are hurtling towards ruin. This absurd
dark comedy, directed by CBC alumnus Adrienne Wong, opens the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s 2017-2018 season.

…

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Student Review: Educating Rita at the Ottawa Little Theatre – A feminist play about growing from the inside out

By Capital Critics Circle | November 7, 2017

Reviewed by Eden Patterson in the Critcism class of P. Langston

A hairdresser walks, not into a bar, but into a university office. It’s the 80’s in Northern England. Rita (26), the hairdresser, is disappointed with her life. She longs for an education but feels the net of society’s expectations drowning her into a sea of an unhappy marriage and into the deep depths of ignorance. Frank, an old, pessimistic, student-loathing alcoholic professor finds the quick-witted and relentless Rita in his office. Over the course of many weeks, Frank guides Rita on her path to higher education and towards a final exam. However, as it is put in the show, “if you wanna change, you gotta do it from the inside.”
…

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The Revolutionists: How far have we come?

By Jane Baldwin | November 7, 2017

The Revolutionists. Photo A. R. Sinclair — The Revolutionists Photo A. R. Sinclair

The Nora Theatre Company at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, MA is currently presenting The Revolutionists, a work by Lauren Gunderson that takes place in Paris during the Reign of Terror (1792-1793), a period of the French Revolution during which the leaders of the new government took revenge against those viewed as anti-revolutionists. The situation worsened when the government split into two factions, the Jacobins and Girondins. Of the two the Jacobins were the more vicious. Arrests, quick trials, and the guillotine were the order of the day. …

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PLAYWRIGHT MARCUS YOUSSEF WINS 2017 SIMINOVITCH PRIZE IN THEATRE

By Capital Critics Circle | November 7, 2017

Prize awarded Monday, November 6 at the National Arts Centre

November 6, 2017 – OTTAWA (Canada) – Playwright Marcus Youssef has been named the 2017 recipient of the Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s most prestigious prize in Theatre. This year marks the 17^th year of the Prize, which was celebrated at a ceremony today in the Fourth Stage of the National Arts Centre, hosted by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Anne-Marie Cadieux. The award of $100,000 is the largest theatre prize in Canada. Mr. Youssef will receive $75,000 and Christine Quintana, whom he has chosen as his protégée, will receive $25,000.

Mr Youssef was one of four talented playwrights on this year’s shortlist, which also included Evelyne de la Chenelière, Hannah Moscovitch, and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. …

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Ordinary Days :Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary

By Capital Critics Circle | November 7, 2017

Ordinary Days, Photo Andrew Alexander — Photo Andrew Alexander

Some times we think our lives are pretty ordinary. Maybe they are but this insightful play reminds us that is no reason not to celebrate them. Ordinary Days playing at the GCTC focuses on 4 people in New York, but it captures the spirit of everyone that feels alone or trapped while surrounded by people. It is minimalist theatre at its best. It needs so little to create atmosphere: some stairs to create levels a few benches, chairs and you have a set. Add some light applied in just the correct way and any landscape you need is created to move a story along. In Ordinary Days at the GCTC, Seth Gerry’s set and lighting design embody this principle of creating simple perfect landscapes out of almost nothing at all. …

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Enchanted April: Linden House production is charming and well acted

By Iris Winston | November 6, 2017

Enchanted April
By Matthew Barber
Based on the novel The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Linden House
Directed by George Stonyk

Would that a month’s vacation in a foreign land, surrounded by flowers, sunshine and ocean, could solve the problems of daily life.

Maybe it did for author Elizabeth von Arnim, whose 1922 novel The Enchanted April was inspired by the month she spent at Castello Brown in Portofino on the Italian Riviera. It certainly spawned two stage plays (1925 and 2003), two movies (1935 and 1992) and even a musical (2010) and is credited with having made Portofino popular as a vacation destination. …

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